The Avatar Seekers
by AvatarCat13
Summary: The Avatar gaang suddenly get transported to Canada where they meet the Seeker Bears. How will they get back to their world? And will they survive as bears? Up for adoption!
1. It All Starts In The Library

**I haven't made an author's note when I made this, so don't get mad when I recreate this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last AirBender or Seeker Bears.**

**Summary: Aang and his friends get transported to a new world in a new form for each of them.**

**Remember: This takes place between The Tales of Ba Sing Se & Appa's Lost Days, and it takes place during Great Bear Lake.**

**One more thing: this is my first FanFic EVER!**

**...**

_It All Starts With A Book_

It was just another day at Ba-Sing-Se as Aang woke up from flashes of nightmares about losing Appa to the SandBenders. He was now getting tired of hearing about all the rules that Long-Feng had to say about no speaking about the War. He had nearly hit him but if Katara hadn't held him back, he would have been in trouble. But his faith in the beautiful WaterBender won over.

After Aang failed to talk to Long Feng, he had desperately tried to ask several people around Ba Sing Se about where Appa went to, but he didn't know that Ju Dee was shaking her head at them as if to tell them to not answer the Avatar. Aang went back to the house so that they could search for Appa later and they could relax for a little while.

During that time, Katara and Toph had been going to a spa for a "girls' day out," (Aang even commented to Katara that she looked very pretty with make-up on and he said the same thing to Toph) Sokka had been beaten at a haiku contest, and Momo, Aang's pet lemur, had searched for Appa, but he had gotten three friends instead: three pygmy pumas.

**...**

Now after breakfast, he he searched the bookshelves in the living room for something to read to pass the time. As he searched, he saw a book with three bears looking down into a massive lake and in the middle was a black bear. He suddenly remembered asking Monk Gyatso, his AirBending teacher, about this book while they played Pai Sho.

"_Those are the Seeker Bears, Aang. They are on a journey to try and save the wild from the humans who are harming them. It would be a pleasure to see them someday."_

Aang let out a sigh of remembereance of his guardian monk who had always eased his burden of being the Avatar with fun and games. If the other monks hadn't tried to seperate mentor and student, Aang wouldn't have run away. But if he didn't overhear the conversation, he wouldn't have met the friends he has right now.

Aang let his mind travel back to reality, but instead of the walls of the house, there was instead loads of trees surrounding him. And there was no noise and bustling from the city, only bird calls. The sky above him was bright and blue with no hint of clouds, or Appa, anywhere.

He got up to stretch his arms and legs and gazed at his flexing claws.

A dull blow hit his head like a huge rock as he did a double-take at his new fingers. _I have claws? What's going on?_ There was a mirror on a nearby tree, so, very clumsily with his new hands, grabbed it and looked inside.

Instead of his reflection, there was a brown bear staring right back at him with the same gray eyes he always had. The arrows haven't disappeared, but they did turn white. _I'm a bear!_

"Aang, what's going on?" Katara's voice called out, although he voice sounded bearlike; Aang expected that she became a bear also. "And why do I feel itchy?"

"WE'RE BEARS? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE?" Sokka's voice rang out, and it sounded like a roar.

Aang rushed over on his clumsy hind legs and stared at his friends with shock. They had become two white bears and a small black bear. Aang suspected the white bears were Katara and Sokka, and the black bear was Toph. _We're ALL bears!_

"I feel kind of furry, like a fur coat got onto me." Toph had woken up.

Sokka snapped, "That's because you DO have a fur coat!" He began grumbling under his breath and stalked away from the group.

"So, Aang. Would you like to explain to us how we've become bears?" Katara demanded quietly yet in a motherly attitude, her new white pelt glowing pale in the sunlight and her blue eyes glittering with impatience. Aang became too stunned to answer; despite being bears, his mind was still human.

Aang replied, "You look pretty for a bear." He felt his new fur burn with embarrassment at saying that, but he wanted her to know. Aang also noticed Katara blush a little at the comment, and he could tell that she wasn't mad at him anymore.

"Ew! A grizzly in love with a white bear? That's a load of cloudfluff!" a very unfamiliar female voice growled. The voice sounded pretty young.

As they turned around (Sokka came back from sulking around), they could see a grizzly cub glaring up at all four bears with fierce amber eyes. "And what's with your fur, grizzly? It's mixed and white."

"Chennai! Why must you speak to complete strangers? We need to get to Great Bear Lake!" A huge female brown bear stalked toward them and nudged her cub away from Team Avatar pretty quickly; she growled, "You four had better get on to Great Bear Lake, or you'll miss the Longest Day!"

Toph picked out a piece of dirt from her claws and asked, "What's the longest day?"

The mother bear retorted, "I always knew black bears were pesky. When you get there, the elders of the black bears and the white bears can tell you about it. So, Arrow Bear, you come with me. You three use your noses to find your own way to the Lake. And bears from other species don't mix together at all." She nudged Aang away from the group.

Katara sprung forward and growled, "Hey! You can't just take him away from us! He's our friend!"

"Yeah! She's right!" Sokka added, joining up with his sister. "You gotta fight us first and then you can do whatever!"

Katara whirled around to snarl at him while the female grizzly bear pushed Aang far from his friends and snarled back to them, "He's coming with us whether you like it or not!" To Aang, she said, "By the way, I'm Tula and this is my daughter Chennai. What's yours?"

"Aang," the Avatar bear said.

"That's a strange name for a bear. It sounds like a name for a black bear." Her voice got a little suspicious. "Now come on, or we'll be late," she added as she nudged Aang and Chennai away from his friends and toward the scent of brown bears.

Already, Aang didn't want to go without his friends, but these bears seem to don't like other species. It reminded him too much of the segregation of statuses in Ba Sing Se, but he had no choice but to go with the strange she-bear and her cub. _Will my friends go to Great Bear Lake also? _Aang thought as the bears continued on their trek._ Please, Monk Gyatso! Let the others be at the Lake!_

**...**

**This is just a recreation of Avatar Seekers because I made this chapter 1 and chapter 2 into the first chapter together.**

**Review and you'll get a free virtual cookie!**

**See ya next time!**


	2. Chanul And The Cubs

**Avatar Seekers Chapter 3**

As the three other bears looked on with shock, Sokka said as he broke the natural silence, "Okay. Tell me we didn't see a big grizzly. If we did, she and her cub took Aang!"

"She did take him away," Katara murmured back, pacing up and down. "And she mentioned something called the Longest Day at the Great Bear Lake. Is it where grizzly bears gather? We should probably go there."

While the two white bears were speaking, Toph had been eating several berries from a raspberry bush and said through a mouthful of berries, "After this snack here, we can go. I've been starving!"

Katara gave the berries a suspicious sniff and asked, "Toph, are those berries safe to-" "Of course they're safe to eat!" Toph interrupted the 14-year-old WaterBender. "I think these bear instincts kick in just like my EarthBending does while we were humans. Maybe we can use our noses to get to the Lake." _Good point there, _Katara said to herself.

"BERRIES!" Two black bear cubs burst out from some holly bushes and jumped at the berries. Toph watched(even though she can't see) as the cubs happily gulped down the sweet fruit with yelps of happiness. A bigger black bear, who must be the mother, came down from a beech tree and nodded to the three other bears; she added, "Thanks for sharing berries with my cubs. They've been hungry."

"So food's scarce then?" Sokka commented.

The female bear nodded assent but warily. Picking up a stick and stripping it of its bark, she murmured, "Tree spirits, thank you for letting these strange bears share."

Katara had heard Aang speak to Avatar Spirits but not bear spirits. She asked the mother bear, "So you have your own spirits too?"

"Oh, yes. We do have the tree spirits. We thank them for the food we eat, for shelter to sleep and hide, and for making friends, and I'll bet they guided you here. I'm Chanul, by the way," she added, "and these are my cubs. My son Rakin-" she nuzzled the male cub, who had a white streak on his face, "-and my daughter Fona." She nuzzled the reddish brown cub toward them.

Katara murmured, "They're very cute!" She introduced herself and the others as she went on, "So are you three going to Great Bear Lake?"

Chanul nodded once again, but her eyes clouded with sadness and her voice wavered as she spoke, and the next words made Katara hold back a wail, "The cubs' father, Dulo, was traveling with us, but he got killed by four half-grown white bears. They said they'll find us at the Lake and kill us." The two cubs crowded around her and added, "Don't worry, Mother. We're sure they'll never find us."

Pity for Chanul stabbed into Katara's heart like a thorn. _They don't deserve to feel sad like this. It won't hurt to go with them to the Lake for a while. _Out loud, she replied to the she-bear, "I guess we can go with you to the Lake if you want."

"Hold on. We didn't say anything about-" Sokka tried to say. But already, Rakin and Fona were jumping around their mother's paws and chanted, "We get big bears with us! We get big bears with us!" Their eyes were sparkling with excitement like the berries they were eating alongside Toph.

The blind black bear padded up beside Katara and said to her, "Hey, now we can find Twinkle-Toes at Great Bear Lake. Cool, huh?"

_That's true. Please let Aang be at the Lake. Then we can get back to Ba-Sing-Se. _Katara sent this prayer to her mother as she and the others followed Chanul and her cubs toward the nearly fading grizzly scent and out of the pines.


	3. The Salik Gang

**The Gaang are now bears, Aang is taken by a grizzly, and the others are on their way to Great Bear Lake. This story takes place after the episode of Avatar called "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" and around the middle or somewhat the end of the beginning of Great Bear Lake. Salik will come.**

****************************************************************************

**Chapter 4**

"Get these cubs off of me!" Sokka snapped. Chula's two cubs had napped for a few hours and they were now as hyperactive like a Komodo Rhino hatchling. But every time he snapped at them, the two would wail and run to Katara, who would say, "If you yell at them again, I'll tell Chula!" That made him stop and he allowed the cubs to scramble over him.

Chula lumbered back to the other bears with a fish in her jaws. Sokka decided to have some, but Toph blocked his way and whispered, "That might be for Chula and the cubs. Just find some berries of something, okay?"

Angry, Sokka was about to retort when…

"Give us that, you pest!"

A large male white bear rushed out of the trees and raked his claws over Chula's ear, making her yelp and run up a tree. The cubs raced after their mother, but the big bear blocked their way and snarled, "I've been waiting for this moment to kill you cubs, like we did to your father!" He lunged at them.

"Stop it right now!" Katara yelled, though it came out as a roar. She let out a fearsome roar and slammed her paws onto the bully. The two bears were locked together in a hurricane of fur, teeth, and claws and Katara wasn't giving up, her blue eyes blazing in a rage. When the other bear roared, "Taqqiq! Join in or leave!" another white bear, running clumsily, rushed at Katara and threw her off of the first bear. _No way! Nobody picks on my little sister! Except for me, but-_

Sokka rushed at the big bear, roaring, "Let my sister go!" Ignoring Taqqiq's roar, "Hold on, Salik! Iqaluk and Manik are coming!", he slashed at Salik and Taqqiq, with Toph trying to hurl rocks at them.

_Toph can EarthBend when she's a _bear_?!? Wow! Katara, try your WaterBending! Quick!_

As if she heard him, Katara roared as she threw her paw up and sent a stream of water at the Salik Gang. After shaking their pelts, the bears gasped at her with disbelief and roared, "Iqaluk! Manik! Change of plans! We're leaving!" "We'll get you someday, strange she-bear!" Taqqiq snarled at Katara before following his boss into the woods.

"Thank you, young ones! My cubs would have died if you hadn't come!" Chula climbed down the tree and rushed to her cubs gratefully.

_Well, you're welcome._

"Guys!" Toph was sniffing the air, and Sokka guessed that the black bear picked up a scent. "I think we found the Lake! Great Bear Lake!"


	4. Talks of Spirits

**I am very sorry about taking so long about Avatar Seekers. Now this will be in the point of view of Toph. As in "not 'I'". As in "she" or "her".**

**Anyways, the Team Avatar Bears fought off the Salik gang for now. But what does Toph sense?**

**Find out!**

* * *

As Toph sat down after feeling the path to Great Bear Lake, Chula nervously padded to her and asked, "How can you find your way there without seeing anything? Did the Tree Spirits give you powers?"

Toph was about to retort about the blindness but Katara interceded for her and said, "Um…yes, we got our powers from the Spirits. Well, do bears have different spirits?"

"Yes," Chula murmured before Rakin and Fona raced around their mother's paws, trying to wrestle to say what spirits they had. Rakin landed on his sister's head with his butt, crowing, "Ha! Male bears always win!" To Katara, he added, "Mom told us the white bears have the ice spirits. White bears spirits go into the ice when they die, and when the ice melts, they float to the sky. I think Mom said one time that when there isn't any ice when a white bear dies, they go straight into the sky."

"Don't forget about the brown bears!" Fona laughed, unfazed about her defeat. "When a grizzly dies, they get covered by dirt and leaves and twigs. Then their spirits goes into the Salmon River to go to the ocean."

_Wow. For puny cubs, they are smart, _Toph mused. _Chula taught them a lot! _As for she herself, she wasn't as interested in the spirits as Twinkle Toes was.

But before Chula can say anything else, Sokka asked Rakin, "Did you just say male bears always win?"

When the cub nodded, Sokka cheered, "Good for you, little guy! Males ALWAYS win!"

"Sokka, quit it," Katara snapped before turning to Chula. "Sorry about my brother pitting Rakin against Fona. Continue on."

"It's okay; Rakin's been doing it for moons." Chula sighed before continuing on: "When a black bear dies, their spirits go into the trees. When you peer close to the bark, you might see the face of a bear. I think Dulo is probably in a tree at the Lake," she added sadly, shuffling her paws.

Toph couldn't help but side with the mama bear. Once they get to the Lake, they'll whoop Salik's butt for Chula, Dulo, and their kids. And they'll find Aang. But it's near sunset and the bears needed to get going because Sokka growled, "Come on! Let's get to the Lake before dark!" He was still ticked off because of his sister's scolding.

"What?" Chula asked distractedly. "Oh yes, we need to move, cubs. And I mean all of you," she added to the human-bears.

"I'm not a-" Toph began until Katara grabbed her by the scruff and hauled her away with the other bears onward to the Lake. But not before Sokka complained, "I'm hungry! When do we eat?"

Which made everyone say, "Ugh!"

* * *

**That's all for now of this chapter. Hope you like it.**

**The next chapter will be about Aang. Don't forget Azula and Zuko also. They're brown bears. It'll also have Toklo, Ujurak, Shesh, Oogrook, and Shoteka in there.**

**I'll also erase my Avatar Cat story: The Cat In The White Stone. It's because I've seen the Harry Potter story: What Happened Next. It has over 160 chapters. I'll do the same for Avatar Cat.**

**Review please! Or I will unleash Akakabuto's power onto you all!!! (Just kidding!)**


	5. Meat Issues

**I haven't done Avatar Seekers in a long while. So I'm starting again.**

**I don't own Avatar or Seekers.**

Aang couldn't believe that Tula would just drag him away from his friends along with Chennai teasing him about how he had a crush on white bears. He tried to forget the cub's teasing by spying some berries on a bush.

He was a vegetarian and thought that eating meat is like eating life itself, but he didn't mind his friends eating some because he trusted them with his life.

Aang went over to eat some berries from the bushes and he found their taste sour yet good and he went to eat some more. He was plucking some out with his new bear teeth when he felt bigger teeth grab his scruff and haul him away from the bush. When that was done, he was looking up into the irritated eyes of Tula.

"What are you doing?" Tula growled, deep suspicion in her voice.

"Just eating some berries. Why, are berries that bad to eat?" Aang retorted. This was the first time ever that he talked back to an animal. He was taught by the Air Nomads that all animal life is to be respected, but he was finding it hard to respect this grumpy she-bear.

Tula cuffed him on the ear and snarled, "Berries aren't a proper food for a bear. If you want real food, eat what Chennai's eating. You need meat to survive," she added as she turned her head to her daughter. Chennai was eating a rabbit and the sight sickened Aang as he watched the grizzly cub's fangs chomp down onto rabbit flesh and swallow it.

He couldn't stand and watch, so, feeling sick, he ran over behind a tree and retched horribly, the sight stuck in his brain.

"Stop that!" Tula snapped as she grabbed him with her paw and put him in front of the rabbit. "You're not leaving until you eat the last pieces!"

Aang was now very furious at this bear; even Sokka wasn't this grumpy! _Why do bears have to be grumpy all the time? _he lamented to himself.

Shivering, he slowly grabbed the piece of meat from the dead rabbit, the scent of blood filling his nose. It almost made him puke again. He managed to try to chew it, but it tasted disgusting! He spat it out angrily and complained to Tula, "It's disgusting! I don't want to eat this rabbit! I'm going to get some berries!" He stalked over to the bushes and began to eat the berries while glaring at the two grizzlies.

Chennai imitated her mother and snarled, "You heard Mother! Eat some meat NOW."

"But what if he doesn't want to?" a young bear's voice came out of the trees.

Aang looked up in time to see another grizzly bear cub leap down from a nearby boulder and plant himself in front of Aang, shielding him from the grizzly female. Unlike Chennai's gaze, which is full of disapproval at what Aang had done, this cub's gaze was friendly and understanding.

"Bears can eat more than just meat. They can also eat fruit, moss, leaves, and even flat-face trash," the cub explained. "If you can't understand that, we'll take him with us."

_Us? Does that mean this cub found my friends?_ Aang wondered with hope.

Without another word to the angry cub, the cub said to Aang, "You'll come with us, won't you?"

"Sure," he replied. This bear wasn't all that bad. He liked him even better than Tula and Chennai combined! So he followed the cub to where there was a lakeshore.

To his disappointment, the cub hadn't found Aang's friends; instead, there were two other bear cubs: a female black bear cub even smaller than Toph and a male grizzly bear cub even bigger than Katara but smaller than Sokka. The big bear cub growled to the younger grizzly, "Who is this, Ujurak?"

Ujurak pointed his claw to Aang and said, "I don't know, but his arrow markings tell me something: the bear spirits has arranged for him to meet us at Great Bear Lake."

Aang felt his insides squirm in him with delight. _Great Bear Lake? I made it! Maybe my friends will be there! I'm here, Katara: waiting for you and the others to come here. But I really want to see you the most._

The big grizzly snorted, "You and your spirits, Ujurak. Now let's get something to eat. You!" he said to Aang. "You like eating meat do you?"

"Toklo, some grizzlies were going to make him eat meat, even if he didn't want to," the black cub piped up, walking to Aang. "Hey, Arrow Cub, would you want some blackberries? They're delicious! More delicious than those salty potato sticks!"

Aang didn't want to be rude to the cub and said, "Okay. I'm a vegetarian anyways. I only eat fruit, vegetables, or any other plant."

He saw Toklo roll his eyes at them as he went off to fish a salmon out of the Lake while Ujurak join Aang and the cub they called Lusa in joining the berry feast. As the bears introduced themselves while they ate, he replied, "I'm Aang, the Avatar, and I'm searching for my friends at this Lake. If you help me, I'd be really happy."

**That's all I can write for now, because I'm uploading my Wildfire series pretty soon.**

**Any new reviews will be welcomed, but any flames will be used to keep the cold away at night.**

**Thank you.**


	6. The Polar Bears

**It's been a few moons since I've done this story and right now I'd like to start this chapter up and do the story again. And if there was a Seekers movie, I'd say that Mae Whitman would voice Kallik.**

**Disclaimer: YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT I DO NOT OWN.**

**I have nothing else to say, so let's get on with it. Oh, and I noticed that there is an incorrect number of chapters on there, and they will be from 1 to 6 for now, so please ignore the mistakes and think of them as normal**

**...**

**The Polar Bears**

When the bears arrived at the Great Bear Lake, Katara couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the Lake. It was large, serene, and beautiful: its water was rippling down towards the shore and she could see tiny fish darting around the shallows. Now they could find Aang and rescue him from the grizzly she-bear and her cub.

Immediately, before Chula could say anything, Sokka pounced right into the Lake to catch the small fish and he shoved his muzzle into the clear water. But he brought his muzzle back up to the surface and he snarled, "These aren't real fish! These are just minuscule fish!"

"That's what Mother tried to tell you," Rakin retorted, giving Sokka a bump on the shoulder. Sokka then good-naturedly nudged the black bear into the shallow water and they playfully wrestled together. With astounding tenderness for a large polar bear, Sokka pinned Rakin to the ground and crowed happily, "I win!"

Rakin huffed playfully, "Duh, it's because you're a white bear!"

When they were finished playfully arguing, Chula told the white bears and Toph, "Thank you very much for joining us on our trip here. May the tree spirits watch over you youngsters for always."

"No problem, Chula. We're just happy that you made it here okay," Katara said, dipping her head to the female black bear.

Fona padded up to her mother and asked Katara, "Why did you dip your head like that? Did you get a headache?"

Katara ruffled the cub's head with her paw and answered her, "No, little one; it's just a gesticulation of respect. We've been taught about respect when we were humans." But immediately, she closed her mouth and thought over what she just said. She just blurted out their secret, she realized as Sokka and Toph stared at her with disbelief.

"Humans? What are humans?" Chula asked her.

Katara could see the confusion in her eyes and she realized that humans and bears have a different way of naming things. Bears have called humans "flat-faces", haven't they? If so, it's time that she gave Chula and her cubs an explanation. So she smoothed her shoulder fur with her tongue and she explained to them, "Well, humans are the term that the flat-faces call themselves and we were flat-faces in a different world."

Sokka glared at his sister to tell her that enough had been already said, but Chula's dark brown eyes widened with surprise and she stammered, "Well, I don't know what to say about that-"

"Young white bears! Come with us to our side of the Lake!" An old male white bear padded forward and nudged Katara and Sokka toward a huge crowd of white bears and they were all either talking, play-fighting, eating, or sleeping. Katara thought, _I've never seen so many white bears in one place! _"By the way, I am Kunik and we're getting ready for the Longest Day! You can join us if you like because it's very important to all bears." the male bear told the two siblings.

"Thank you," Katara replied before turning to Toph and saying, "Come on, Toph. Let's get to the other white bears."

But the old male white bear stepped in their way and rasped, "I'm sorry, you two, but your black bear friend cannot come with us." Before Katara could ask him why, he simply said, "Bears of different pelt colors don't usually join together. I think it's best if she goes with the other black bears."

Toph didn't protest at that while Chula thanked the white bears again for protecting them.

Katara understood and Toph nudged her shoulder, saying, "Hey, don't worry about me, Sugar Queen. I'll be okay with Chula and her kids. And I'll see you later also, Snoozles," she added, nudging Sokka's shoulder with her muzzle. He and Katara nodded to her and said that they'll meet up after the Longest Day.

After Toph, Chula, and the cubs went off, Kunik told the two white bears to come with him to the center of the clearing, where an ancient she-bear and two mother bears were resting and talking. They were talking to a young white bear cub, who was saying, "...and when I woke up, she was dead."

As Katara got closer, feeling the same way the cub felt, one of the mother bears snarled, "Flat-faces! Even when they try to help, they bring trouble!"

Sokka had begun to growl at those words, but Katara held him back as she scolded him, "Don't forget that we're at a meeting that's supposed to bring peace."

Her brother just nodded and continued to listen to the sounds around him, probably on the lookout for any dangerous bear coming their way. But the way Katara saw it, they all looked so peaceful.

"They do their best," the oldest bear told her gently. "Bears can make mistakes, too."

"I can't believe that we'll never see Nanuk ever again," the second mother bear moaned. "She wasn't always easy to get along with, but she had a very kind heart."

"And she was a good mother to her cubs," the ancient she-bear added. "She went on without food to feed them, but they still died from hunger."

_That poor she-bear and her cubs! _Katara could hear the words wail silently in her throat and she tried to blink back tears.

Then the bear complaining about flat-faces said with an edge of spite in her voice, "_I _heard that when they were dead, she ate them."

"Nanuk would _never_ have done that!" the young polar bear cub suddenly barked, whirling around to face the bigger she-bear. Katara saw that she had a lot of courage despite being small. "She loved her cubs. She was still sad about them when I knew her."

"I'm only saying what I heard," the she-bear muttered, looking taken aback.

Deciding to offend the cub, Katara stepped forward, ignoring her brother's call to get away. She then approached the group and told the bear, "Well, she's right. You shouldn't spread wicked rumors like that."

The oldest she-bear gave Katara a nod and rested a comforting paw on the cub's shoulder, murmuring, "Steady there, young one. Imiq never thinks before she speaks. Few bears will believe that tale. Most of us will grieve for Nanuk and honor her memory."

Katara decided to interrupt the group of bears as politely as she could and introduce herself and Sokka to them. Ignoring the look on his face when she told him that, she padded closer until she could feel their dark brown eyes boring at her like the sun. _Just be brave and no harm will come to you, _her father's gentle voice echoed inside her head.

Katara cleared her throat and was about to speak, but Imiq stepped toward her and huffed, "Anyways, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Hey, she just got here!" The white bear cub had scampered over to her and introduced herself, "I'm Kallik and it's nice to meet a new friend!"

Sokka padded up toward them and nudged his sister playfully on the shoulder.

Seeing the two of them together, Kallik asked Katara, "Are you two mates?"

"She's my sister!" Sokka suddenly rebuked her. "There's no way that the Spirits would think of that!"

Katara silenced him by closing his mouth with her paws and he nodded to her and fell silent. Then she said, "He's right; we're brother and sister. My name's Katara and this is Sokka. We're new around here."

"Welcome, young ones." The old bear had approached and said, "I am Siqiniq and I am the elder of the white bears. I welcome you two to white bear territory."

After they talked for several minutes about some "endless ice", Sokka had told them that they lived somewhere deep south where snow and ice never melted. Katara knew that he was talking about the Southern Water Tribe and she quickly explained, as the bears' eyes got hopeful, that the "bears" there were extremely territorial. She didn't want the bears to get slaughtered by her own tribe.

"Anyways, tell us about the endless ice in the north, Siqiniq," said a mother bear named Qanniq.

Siqiniq cleared her raspy throat and she replied, "The spirits there are very beautiful." She closed her eyes as if reliving a memory when she went on, "Their faces, legs, and arched backs fill the night sky with light and they are the only color in the endless ice." Seeing the surprised looks from Katara and Kallik and confusion from Sokka, she added, "I've heard that they dance here too, but we can't see them because the daylight is too bright, and no true night ever comes."

Katara saw Kallik tip her head back to look at the setting sky. She was wondering why the white bear cub was gazing at the sky with longing.

She sat down next to her and asked her, "What's on your mind, Kallik?"

The white cub looked at her and told her with some sadness, "I'm just thinking about my mother. She was killed by orca and my brother and I were separated by them. I don't know if he's still alive."

Katara had no clue about what an orca was, but she felt Kallik's pain; her own brave and beautiful mother, Kya, was killed in a raid against her Tribe and she lived for six years without her mother. But Kallik had been by herself for a very long while and she was trying hard to fend for herself.

"So you miss her, huh?" she asked her new friend. Kallik nodded, still staring up at the sky, and Katara went on, "I feel the same way that you do. My mother was killed by some kind of monster. And I had my brother to care for, so it was hard without our mother."

Kallik nodded and began to listen to the bears talk about the spirits. Katara was now eager to listen to bear folklore and she sat next to Sokka and Kallik to listen, and she wondered why Sokka was listening; normally, he'd go around looking for food.

"Spirits! There's no such thing as spirits in the sky!" A familiar yet irritating voice echoed to the bears and reached Katara and Sokka, who whispered to her, "I bet that the Salik guy is back."

Katara said nothing, but she nodded her head at him and began snarling at Salik's direction.

Salik had brought his friends with him and Katara couldn't help but feel that the one with the weird walking looked strangely like Kallik, but just a little. The leader of the half-grown male bears charged at a group of cubs, who whimpered and scurried back to their mothers.

Siqiniq got up and faced Salik calmly. "Maybe you think that now, but when you get older, you will be wiser." She said that so calmly that Katara had to admire this old bear for handling the situation very calmly.

The young male looked uneasy at first, but his eyes hardened. "Old fool," he snarled as he gathered his friends so that they could leave. But he suddenly seemed to notice Katara because he roared at her direction, "Wait a minute! You're that strange bear!"

Immediately, the young WaterBender got up and replied, "You bet that it's me, you piece of trash. Why are you here?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" Salik retorted in a false friendly voice, standing on his hind legs and towering over her. "We just came to make sure that these bears listen to what we have to say when we all need to survive, that's all. If you cross my path again, I'll make you pay."

Her patience running out, Katara let out a roar of rage and stood on her hind legs to face Salik. She felt hatred for this bear run through her veins like hatred for the Fire Nation; she couldn't believe how this bear could be so arrogant and very selfish. Katara then roared again and struck out with her front paw at the same time that Salik did, but Kunik ran between them.

"Stop this fighting at once, you two!" he snapped. "This is meant to be a day of peace, not fighting!"

Immediately, Katara got down onto her front paws and stalked back to her brother, who brushed his fur protectively with hers. And Salik growled while he backed away from the group of bears with his friends into the crowd.

While the other bears were muttering about half-grown males and how bad they're becoming, Sokka beckoned for Katara and Kallik for a little meeting and said, "Guys, it's time we found up what those jerks are up to."

"Well, what do we do? I don't think there's anything that we can do for now, Sokka," Kallik told him.

"She's right. We don't have any proof that they're plotting anything," Katara added to her brother. "The most that we can do for now is just to live like a polar bear for the time being."

As Sokka explained to Kallik about the similarities of a white bear and a polar bear, Katara glared back at where Salik and his gang went off to. She wasn't going to let Salik, Taqqiq, and the other juveniles devastate the Longest Day and she hoped that Aang wouldn't get in their way.

**...**

After hearing Siqiniq tell her tales, Katara and Sokka had to live like polar bears for the time being, so Katara went away to learn the feeling. She gazed around the trees nearby and saw that there were clumps of fruit on them. She approached the nearest berry bush and started to eat. But she suddenly spat them out.

When Sokka came over to his sister, Katara explained, "I like fruit as a human, but I think it tastes awful to white bears."

"Yeah, I hot the same feeling. But I prefer meat anyways, so I'm gonna go catch a fish," he replied, stepping into the shallow end of the lake.

Katara knew that Sokka will always be the same meat-&-sarcasm guy, but she saw sense of what was happening: white bears hated fruit. So she followed her brother into the lake and stared into the water for a while. _I don't think this will work._

Suddenly, a flash of silver shot past her and Katara leaped after it, plunging her paw into the water and she felt her claws strike flesh. She pulled it up and found that she had caught a fish. A satisfied grunt told Katara that Sokka had caught a fish also and he brought the fish over and started eating.

"Hey! I caught that! Give it back!"

Kallik's squealing brought both polar bears to see that Kallik was chasing one polar bear with a stolen fish in its jaws. But this bear's eyes weren't filled with amusement; they were filled with hostility.

"I know. I know. We gotta get that fish back for Kallik," Sokka muttered as he followed his little sister to help the young orphaned cub.

They reached them at another place at the edge of the Lake and Katara was repulsed to see the Salik Gang greedily devour the fish that Kallik worked so hard to get. And she realized that the bear who stole it from her was Taqqiq because of his funny running. This would be funny if the situation wasn't bad.

"Thieves!" Kallik was snarling. "Why can't you catch your own prey?"

Katara dashed forward to stand beside her as she added, "She's right? Why don't we hear what you guys have to say for yourselves?"

"Why don't you shut up, seal-brain?" Taqqiq retorted at them as he turned around from eating the stolen fish.

Sokka came up to defend his sister and their new friend if things got bad as he finished, "And why are we saying 'why' in three or four times running? And no one tells my sister to shut up except for me when we tease each other!"

Katara glanced at Sokka in a weird yet sisterly way. She knew that his jokes were as dry as sand, but she still loved her big brother no matter what happened. Her loyalty to her family was why she went with him at first to find Hakoda after the map incident.

"Hey, Taqqiq, that was a good catch!" Salik said, coming over and nudging the smaller polar bear with his shoulder. "Can you get us another one?"

_Such evil twisted-_

"Taqqiq!" Kallik's voice rang out so suddenly that it made Katara stop thinking bout the insults she wanted to throw at Salik and his gang. "Taqqiq!"

Katara asked her, "How do you know him?"

"He's my brother!" she replied.

As she stared down at Kallik in shock (she and Sokka are taller than her), Taqqiq narrowed his eyes, but not in a friendly recognizing way. Instead, his eyes were filled with suspicion. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

Katara felt her heart swell with joy when Kallik managed to introduce herself, but then Taqqiq shook his head and growled, "My sister's dead. She and my mother were killed by orcas."

"Ignore her. She's crazy," Salik told him and the other bears gaped at Kallik while Katara and Sokka prepared to place themselves in front of the smaller cub. They did this so that they could protect her from the claws and teeth of the other polar bears.

"I'm not crazy. I'm alive," Kallik answered, her voice shaking with joy. "Nisa pushed me onto the ice before the orca dragged her down. But you were on the other side of the water and I couldn't get back to you."

Both Katara and Sokka stiffened with a tense feeling as Taqqiq padded over to his little sister, his huge feet crunching on the pebbles, and then he stretched his neck out to her and sniffed her over. His eyes widened as he rasped, "You are Kallik!"

Kallik nodded quickly to him and barked, "Of course I am! And I've found you!"

Taqqiq glanced around at his friends and then back to Kallik. What the male polar bear said next made Katara feel sad for Kallik and very angry at the cub's brother: he leaned forward and hissed at her, "What are you doing here? I didn't ask you to come looking for me!"

"How could you say such a thing to her?" Katara growled as she stomped up to Taqqiq and planted herself between him and Kallik. "She searched for you for so long!"

"Are you going to stand there all day?" one of the other bears, obviously Salik, growled at him. "We're going to go look for some more food. If you want any, you'd better come." As he padded away, Katara could see that the other two polar bears were closely flanking him.

Taqqiq turned around and followed the others up the shore. But before he left, he snarled at Kallik, "Leave me alone. I have my own friends now. So keep to yourself and your weird friends."

"Wait!" Kallik called after him as Katara and Sokka flanked her and stared after Taqqiq. "What are you doing? It's wrong to steal food. Why can't you catch your own food, like our mother used to teach us?"

"Things are different now!" her brother retorted, stopping to curl his lip and show his strong yellow teeth at Kallik, Katara, and Sokka. "If Nisa wanted to show us how to survive her own way, she shouldn't have died and left us all alone in this world."

Katara's own heart twisted at the bitterness in Taqqiq's voice. It reminded her of someone: Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. The banished Prince had been chasing the Avatar around to regain his honor and his throne, and he had a bitter attitude toward anyone who thought different. But it seemed that Nisa's death had traumatized Taqqiq beyond repair.

Kallik stepped forward and pleaded with him, "Our mother didn't choose to die. Her spirit is still here, watching over us."

But Taqqiq didn't look back as he walked up the beach after his friends; clearly, he didn't pay attention to anything his sister said to him.

The smaller polar bear cub slumped her shoulders and looked after him with a sad look in her eyes. As the cold lake water washed around the three polar bears' paws, Katara felt pure sympathy towards Kallik. She had lost her mother to the orca and she lost her brother, not physically but spiritually.

_I know that Aang needs us and we need him, but we have to help Kallik also..._

**...**

**That's all I can write for now, and some parts are from the actual Seekers: Great Bear Lake book and I don't own what they say or do. Although I did change it a little bit.**

**Review and a virtual cookie cake will be sent automatically sent to you.**

**See ya next time!**


	7. Shoteka's Challenge

**I'm finally gonna update Avatar Seekers once again! But I made a mistake: when Kallik reunites with Taqqiq, that was after Toklo was pitted to swim across Great Bear Lake. So those who want to see another chapter of Sokka in his bear form, just be patient. I'll get to it soon.**

**Disclaimer: I will never own Avatar: The Last AirBender or Seeker Bears.**

**Updating date: March 2, 2011**

**Enjoy!**

**...**

_Shoteka's Challenge_

As Aang wandered around the sea of grizzly bears, he remembered when Lusa had left them for a while to go on over to the black bear area of Great Bear Lake. He had hoped that since Toph was turned into a black bear, she would be over there already. He already missed being beside his true friends, but the bear cubs weren't bad either.

The only one he never truly understood was Toklo. Ever since Aang told him he didn't eat meat, the grumpy grizzly bear would glower at him as if he couldn't believe a grizzly bear hated eating fish. Plus, all the things that he said about being a flat-face and all of the Bending moves made Toklo tell him that it was all nonsense. He wished that he would just stop for once in his life.

"I'm hungry," Toklo was telling Ujurak. "I'm going to catch a fish."

Ujurak replied, "Fine. I want to talk to more bears."

Aang watched with affection (he was remembering Appa) as Toklo lowered his great head and touched Ujurak's muzzle with his own. He was murmuring, "Suit yourself. Just be careful, okay?"

"I will!" Ujurak answered, bounding off along the water's edge. Aang was reminding of himself when he saw the bear cub's funny antics. "See you later!"

Deciding to join up with the younger cub, Aang joined him as they splashed water over the other bears. They both woofed with laughter as older bears jumped out of the way and glared after them; they didn't take any notice however. But Aang could tell that Ujurak had a lot of spiritual power inside him and he wanted to find out more.

So he pulled him into the bushes, with him protesting, and the two bear cubs quieted down before Ujurak began speaking.

"Aang, what in the name of the river spirits is going on? I was going to ask some bears a lot of things!"

"I'm sorry, Ujurak," Aang replied, and he showed it by handing him some berries off of a bush nearby as an apology, "but I wanted to ask you a few questions myself. Do you think that I'm a bear?"

Ujurak looked up at him with surprise as berry juices ran down his muzzle and onto his paws. Aang noticed the younger bear's brown eyes look from the left to the right as if another bear was sneaking up behind them. Then, with a flick of his claw, he motioned for the Avatar to come closer to him as if to whisper something to him.

Then Ujurak said, "Actually, I believe that you're a flat-face."

"Hey, that's not nice!"

"No, I'm not being mean!" Ujurak retorted, giving Aang a friendly cuff on the ears. "What you call a human is what we bears call it a flat-face. And believe me: ever since Lusa, Toklo, and I rescued you from those grizzlies, I knew that you were a flat-face separated from your friends. Just follow me. I gotta show you something," he added, going deeper into the woods.

Aang didn't know what was going on, but he did feel confused about something. _Does Ujurak know something about my friends? _But he had nothing left to lose, so he followed the younger grizzly bear into the woods.

**...**

All around a small clearing in the woods, there were a lot of pine trees and willow trees to block a bear's view. Aang noticed Ujurak making a small moss nest for his new friends before making himself and he remembered to thank him. Aang settled himself down in the nest, but Ujurak didn't settle down; instead, he stared into the AirBender's eyes and cleared his throat.

"I know what you look like as a flat-face. I kinda saw you in a dream," Ujurak quietly admitted to Aang's amazement. Then he added, "And I know you were searching for someone very close to you besides your friends."

Aang agreed and he suddenly let out a yelp of shock; before him, Ujurak was shivering while white fur was sprouting up all over his brown pelt while he began to grow larger and larger. Two large horns poked out from his head and his tail grew to become large and flat. His legs and paws grew while two extra ones grew in between them. Also, a black arrow stripe suddenly ran from his head to his tail and his jaws became more flat and less narrow.

In Ujurak's place...was a Sky Bison.

Startled, Aang almost went over to hug the bison, but he stopped himself in time. He knew that this was Ujurak, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness in his heart for his lost Sky Bison. Also, he couldn't believe that this bear cub had this kind of power; he had never heard of an animal that could turn to another animal.

Right when Ujurak had become a Sky Bison, he slowly started to shrink and become a grizzly bear once again. At seeing the Avatar look confused at this, Ujurak gave a woof of laughter and told him, "See? That's what I wanted to show you. What animal is that?"

"A...a Sky Bison and his name is Appa," Aang stammered.

Suddenly, a low wheezing moaning sound came from over the lake and all of the grizzly bears were prowling toward the beach, where an old grizzly was the source of the moaning. Aang and Ujurak looked over at one another and joined up with the bears. Both grizzly bear cubs could see Toklo sitting beside a middle-aged grizzly who was whispering something to him.

The bears turned around to glance curiously at Aang while a huge grizzly bear with a hump on his back was glaring at him. Aang felt himself pressing his fur to Ujurak's fur, but the old bear moaned again and that made every bear turn around.

"That is Oogrook," the middle-aged bear was murmuring to Toklo. "The oldest and wisest of us all."

Oogrook lifted his muzzle and let out one more long low moan that echoed around the big sandy lakeshore. The bears near him sank into silence while Aang sat down quickly; then he stopped and began to speak in a voice as thin as a reed and faint as the wind on the water: "This will be my last Longest Day Gathering. At sunrise tomorrow, I will give my thanks to the sun and to the spirits for-"

"What do you want to _thank_ them for?" a she-bear spoke up sharply, her hackles raised. "They're supposed to bring us food, but we're all hungry. I thought there'd be plenty of fish in the lake, but it's as bad here as everywhere else."

Aang couldn't believe that anyone could reject their spirits like that. While he was thinking of that, a few of the bears growled at her for interrupting, but Oogrook silenced them with a raised paw. Believe it or not, he didn't look angry. He was just nodding at the she-bear's speech.

Then he spoke up loudly once again, "What our sister says is true. In some places, rivers have dried up while in others, they burst their banks and drown the land around for many bearlengths. There are fewer fish to eat, fewer roots and berries to be found."

"True, true," a mother bear grunted, giving her cub a comforting lick on its shoulder. Even Aang couldn't help but feel hungry himself; no matter how hard he told himself that he wouldn't rest until he found Appa, he felt his belly rumbled. _Even meat sounds good right now, _he thought to himself reluctantly, remembering Sokka's love for meat.

"So what should we do, Oogrook?" another bear cried from the opposite side of the stone. "If we can't find food, we'll all die!"

A chorus of voices joined in while Aang, Ujurak, Toklo, and the middle-aged bear remained silent. "Yes, tell us what to do!" "Where can I find food for my cubs?" "The fish must have gone _somewhere_!"

Once more, Oogrook held up his paw for silence and Aang paid attention with awareness. "We are here to thank the spirits for what should be the time for best prey. And why should we only blame them for the lack of food? Could it be our fault, for not living the way of true brown bears?"

Aang sunk low to the ground when he heard that because he didn't want anyone to gawk at his markings. He looked down at the sandy ground while the old bear went on, "In such bad times, a demonstration of courage and strength is needed to show that brown bears are still strong, still worthy of being fed by the river spirits."

"How do we do that?"

The ancient bear nodded and replied, "A good question. I believe that we can bring the salmon back by following in the pawsteps of Arcturus, the great bear who once walked across the lake. He was brave enough to make the journey alone, and he found a place where he could live and eat and find shelter."

When he heard the name Arcturus, Aang wondered who that was, and Ujurak whispered that he was the grizzly spirit that the brown bears worshipped.

"What has this got to do with bringing the fish back?" the she-bear that spoke first demanded.

"I believe that a bear should make the journey to Pawprint Island," Oogrook answered her gently. "Alone, because that is how brown bears live...alone, proud, hunting for themselves. Then perhaps Arcturus will look kindly on us and send back the fish."

Silence followed his words as the bears looked at one another, with doubt or dawning hope in their expressions. Aang hoped that there could be some way to help these animals; his duty as the Avatar was to rescue and help people in need, but he could also help out animals in danger. That was one of the lessons Monk Gyatso taught him before he was killed.

Then he turned to see a tiny cub bouncing up and down with excitement, squeaking, "I'll go! I'll go!"

"Don't be squirrel-brained," his mother rebuked him, calming him down by laying a paw on one shoulder. "You're far too young."

At another area, two juvenile male bears were whispering to one another. One of these bears nudged his companion and suggested, "Why don't you go, Hattack? You're always saying what a good swimmer you are."

Hattack looked at his paws and mumbled, "Well, I would, but I've got a cramp in one hind leg."

"Then I'll go. _I'm_ not scared," his friend announced.

Aang almost spoke up that he could go on over and he would get there by WaterBending, but he sat down again. He had gotten some good WaterBending training from Katara and Master Pakku from the Northern Water Tribe and he could get to the island in no time. But he didn't want the bears to believe that he was a sorcerer and claim him to be a heretic. Beside him, Ujurak was just padding up to the parley stone and he was listening to one conversation to another.

"Here's the bear that should go!" the giant humpbacked grizzly from before spoke up, laying a heavy paw onto Toklo's back.

The Avatar could see shock and confusion in Toklo's brown eyes, but before he could go and ask him what was wrong, Oogrook spoke up. "Why do you say that, Shoteka?"

"Shoteka!" Toklo whimpered.

Aang was startled to hear fright in the younger bear's howl of shock. The giant brown bear must have done something very bad to make him frightened of him, like killing his mother or beating him up.

Shoteka glared down at Toklo's pitiful form and snarled in a deep voice, "I didn't expect to see you again. I thought you would have died long ago with no mother to protect you."

Now Aang was getting near to the point of rushing over to Toklo and defending him, but he knew that this was the young grizzly cub's battle, not his own. The final battle that he would go through would be against Fire Lord Ozai.

"Shoteka?" Oogrook's voice had an edge of impatience as he waited for an answer. "Why do you choose this cub?"

"One bear has to go," Shoteka replied, shrugging. "Why not this one?" More quietly to Toklo so that Aang could hear well, the grizzly taunted him, "But you're too weak. No wonder your mother abandoned you."

"Don't talk about my mother!" Toklo snarled.

The giant brown bear's brown eyes glittered with hostility. "Try stopping me."

No longer containing himself, Aang rushed forward and spat at Shoteka, "How dare you taunt him about his mother? What kind of bear are you?"

"Well, what kind of bear cub are you to not have a mother around?" Shoteka spat back.

Rage now filled Aang and he hadn't felt this angry ever since the SandBenders had stolen Appa and sold them; if it hadn't been for Katara, he would've wiped them all out. But the mother comment hit him hard also because he had been taken away from his own mother to be trained in AirBending.

Letting out a rumble of irritation, Aang leaped toward Shoteka and began biting at his leg and clawing it. But far from hurting him, this seemed to make the giant grizzly ticklish and he let out a harsh woof of laughter as he kicked him away. But before things got hairy, the middle-aged bear named Shesh stood in the way and prevented Aang from attacking some more.

"Oogrook," Shesh was telling the elder bear as he herded Aang over to Toklo's side. "This journey is too dangerous for a cub."

"Yes, he's too young," a bear shouted from the other side of the parley stone. "Why don't you go yourself, Shoteka?"

Shoteka defended himself, "I chose him because he's young. He will go a cub but return a full-grown bear, like Arcturus."

There was a bit of thinking and talking among the crowd; tensions were pretty high too. Finally, a she-bear spoke up, "I think Shoteka's right. A cub should go. They are the future of all the bears."

"Spirits save us!" Shesh growled in reply. "We cannot risk the life of a cub, not even for this."

All around the stone, the bears erupted into louder growls and snarls, huffs and snorts, gesturing at Toklo as they argued. Plus, some even pointed their paws at Aang for his defiance against Shoteka. Aang looked around to see Toklo looking out at the island; he imagined that he was thinking of peace and quiet away from the noisy bears.

Shoteka put his muzzle to Toklo's ear and whispered maliciously, "You're just like your mother, weak and scared. Sooner or later, the flat-faces will come and take you away, and you'll scream for help. Just like Oka did. Scared as a squirrel, she was, begging and pleading as they dragged her away into the firebeast." To Aang, he added, "And what about you, Arrow Bear? Are you too scared to defend your friend now?"

"I'LL GO!" Toklo roared at the top of his voice.

"And I'll go with him!" Aang added, standing at his side.

The bears stopped arguing and growling as they turned to look at the two brown bear cubs. Then Oogrook said, "If you two survive, Arcturus will know that brown bears are worthy of being fed for the next suncircle."

"_If_ you two survive," Shoteka hissed into their ears.

Shesh came up to them and said to them quietly, "You don't have to do this. You two are just cubs. No bear will think worse of you."

Toklo insisted, "We'll do it. We'll go."

Oogrook turned to them and said, "That is bravely spoken, young ones. May the spirits go with you."

"Thank you, Oogrook," Aang replied politely, feeling surprised that his own voice sounded clear and steady. And Toklo murmured the same words and turned to face Shoteka, growling at him, "I hope I meet you again when I'm bigger!"

"I won't hold my breath," the giant grizzly retorted as he swung around and stalked away from the parley stone.

The other bears began to move away from Aang and Toklo; Aang felt a little small when the older bears nodded to him and his new friend in respect while the younger bears were glancing nervously at them as if they were spirit bears, not ordinary bears anymore. But Aang knew that he wasn't an actual brown bear...and he was partly a spirit thanks to the many Avatar spirits inside him.

But Aang knew better than to tell Toklo about that; he had heard from Lusa that the grizzly cub thought of stuff like that to be nonsense. The Avatar thought that Toklo had no sense of humor at all, but he had made a little joke now and then. When Toklo had accused Lusa of not being a real bear, Aang defended her by saying that she was still learning.

Ujurak made his way over to his two friends and said, "Hey, Toklo and Aang. Are you two really going to swim all the way out there?"

"I'd do anything for a bit of peace and quiet," Toklo replied gruffly.

Aang nodded and said, "Plus, I wanna hurry up with this and find my friends."

Suddenly, Toklo turned around to glare at him and snapped, "Why would you want to search for them for? They're not brown bears! In fact, they might not be bears at all? Don't you want to be a true grizzly?"

"No. I'm not a grizzly and I never will be," Aang retorted, feeling the entire Avatar Spirits stir up inside him. "I am the Avatar and that's who I will be until the day I die."

But Toklo wasn't even listening to his talking anymore; instead, he was talking to Shesh. The gray adult grizzly had padded up to them and he was now standing beside the cubs, gazing out at the island. Aang thought that the island seemed to move away with every wave that lapped at their paws.

"What do we do when we get there?" Toklo asked him.

"Feel the strength and pride of Arcturus, young bears," Shesh told them. "Rake your claws down a tree. Catch some prey. Defend your territory, For the Longest Day, Pawprint Island belong to you both. Then return to us after the sun has touched the horizon." As Toklo gulped and Aang felt the wind wash over his ears, Shesh added, "You two should rest and build up your strength so you're ready."

Aang nodded to him and went away into the forest to search for some berries. He found some blueberries and began gobbling them down hungrily; he heard muttering and he knew the voices. Those were the female grizzly and her cub that took him away from Katara, Sokka, and Toph. When they went away, Aang went back over to the nest that Ujurak made for him and fell fast asleep, feeling his mind being invaded by dreams.

**...**

A few hours later, Aang woke up and he padded over to the lake, where Toklo was laying as he stared out at the water. The water had turned pale gray and it turned pink as the sun slowly dipped behind the forest.

"You nervous?"

"Yeah."

"Don't let it bother you. I'll help you." Toklo didn't object to that.

Shesh appeared beside the two grizzly bear cubs, his paws crunching on the stones as he told them gently, "It is time."

Both Toklo and Aang rose to their paws and they padded the few paces that took them to the very edge of the lake. The island looked very far away, but Aang felt that they could do this together, although he wished that Katara could be here to help them.

Aang turned around to see a lot of brown bears looking out at them, waiting to see what they would do. There were huge adults, small cubs, scrawny bears, sitting bears, standing bears and elderly bears. Shesh looked very calm and approving as if he supported them, Oogrook looked very hopeful, while Shoteka glared at them with contempt.

"Look at the lake," Ujurak told Aang and Toklo, looking out at the lake, which turned pink from the evening sun. "It's a good sign." Nudging Toklo and Aang one at a time with his nose, he said, "You'll both be okay, I promise. You can swim, Toklo, just remember that. And Aang, you'll find your friends and you can go back to your world. I promise."

_How could you know that? _Aang wondered with confusion.

As Ujurak went back to wait beside Shesh and Oogrook, Aang went out into the lake and calmly swam around in a circle, waiting for Toklo. While this went on, he heard the brown bears from the shoreline shout:

"The salmon will return to us."

"Those cubs are brave."

"Arcturus! Honor these cubs by bringing us prey!"

_I agree. Please, Roku...and Arcturus, wherever or whoever you are. Please help Toklo and I complete this mission. That way, my friends and I can go home._

_To be continued..._

**...**

**There! Glad I can update this story ever since September!**

**Anyways, whoever reviews will be given virtual cookie cakes!**

**See ya next time! And Happy early Mardi Gras!**


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